NNN Brokers USA – San Francisco Commercial Real Estate Brokers: "The Scoop"

A profile of Peter Bohlin, the architect who designed Pixar’s HQ and Apple’s retail stores (notably the 5th Ave. Cube in New York), reveals the guy to be so hardcore old-school that he doesn’t know how to use e-mail, and he quaintly carries a fistful of Japanese pencils with him at all times. Bohlin, who beat out way bigger stars for the AIA’s gold medal this year, can probably thank the Cube, which was originally sketched out using his always-on-hand pencils, and which is now New York’s fifth most photographed building. [Philly]

Following our Friday brief on condo-market shrinkage in San Francisco, the Examiner has a couple factoids to add. First, no shocker here: condos are selling for about 10 to 20 percent lower than they were two years ago — a rate that’s helping to move all those units from the big-condo big boom dating back to that same heady era. But with big-ticket projects now more or less off the radar (the only large-scale for-sale project coming online anytime soon is One Hawthorne), we’re looking at the condo well drying up in as soon as six months. (That’s according to the prez of Pacific Marketing Partners, which does marketing for One Rincon Hill et al.) Assuming construction loans start kickstarting projects again in, say, two-ish years, with new condos hitting a couple years after that, San Francisco won’t be seeing much new inventory for a solid few years.
· Sales of new condos heating up [SF Examiner]

As we wrote in September 2008: 215 Moulton “in the heart of Cow Hollow” appears to have been bought back by the bank with a loan balance of $1,893,000 this past July. And while the contract price for its…

[Giant land mammal photochoppage via Richmond SF Blog]

· Indy the 20-ton rhino thing visits Richmond spots [Richmond SF]
· Gavin sells development stimulus to construction workers [SF Examiner]
· Judge rules against Pleasanton’s housing cap [SFGate]
· Palo Alto hops on Google gigabit bandwagon [CBS 5]
· Disney World could be a stop on Florida’s high-speed rail [BusinessWeek]

Less San Francisco, more Frisco, Colo! Or at least Colorado Springs — this last city is among the smaller metro areas, along with others like Detroit and Minneapolis, that are gaining ground as the favored homes for immigrants, as opposed to the old school “gateway” cities like L.A., New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Experts aren’t united on what that means, but one says they’re avoiding big cities just “like the rest of us,” while another says smaller cities offer “a place to live unnoticed, a somewhat welcoming environment, and less competition for lower-paying jobs.” [CS Monitor]

Remodeling, Addition & Replacement Costs & Percentage Recouped Upon Sale

The 22nd annual, Remodeling- Cost vs. Value report has been released for 2009/2010. The report consist of the relationship between remodeling costs and resale value by comparing national and regional averages for 33 popular remodeling projects.

This is what Hanley Wood, LLC had to say about the San Francisco averages.

While it’s not listed on the MLS, a plugged-in tipster notes San Francisco’s iconic Hotel Utah (500 4th Street) is on the market and asking $2,350,000 for its 28 “Tourist Rooms” and Hotel Utah Saloon. When the Hotel Utah…

Unfortunately the sale of 908 Ashbury won’t be apples to apples as building permits note a remodeled master bath, a new guest bath, new skylights, and the moving of walls since its last sale. Also noted in the permits:…

Inventory of Active listed single-family homes, condos, and TICs in San Francisco climbed 11% over the past two weeks versus an average of 5% for the same two weeks over the past four years. Current inventory levels are down…

“When the foreclosure crisis started, Congress passed the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 so foreclosed homeowners would not be liable for their canceled debt. It is in force through 2012. California had a similar law, but it expired…